


Extra! Extra! Read All About It

by lorenzobane



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: (kinda), Articles, Bitty is actually pretty badass, Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, OUT Magazine, good boyfriend Jack, supportive Jack Zimmerman, this is really just self indulgent fluff, too bad everyone knows but him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-21 01:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16149773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lorenzobane/pseuds/lorenzobane
Summary: When Out Magazine asks to do a short piece about being the first out Captain of an NCAA Hockey Team, Bitty doesn't really mind.It'll only be two hundred words at the back anyway. Who cares?Or: Bitty gets a big article written about him and promptly freaks out





	Extra! Extra! Read All About It

“Oh, honey,” Bitty says, laughing in his ear on the phone. “It’s not a big deal! It’s probably just because I’m dating you, anyway. And it’s only two hundred words in the back somewhere. But still! I think it’ll be fun.”

Jack rolls his eyes a little. _Out Magazine_ asked if they could do a short personal piece on Bitty, the only openly gay Captain of an NCAA team. Bitty has, predictably, begun downplaying it.

“It is a big deal,” Jack insists. “And it isn’t because of me. You’re the captain, Bits. I’m very proud of you.”

“Ugh,” Bitty replies. “Well, thank you very much darlin’, but something you should be more proud of me for is I actually started my paper due next week.”

“Oh yeah?” Jack asks. “And why is that?”

“There is a tall French Canadian professional Hockey player that I was planning on spending a few days with, and he’ll be impossible to deal with if I don’t.”

“Sounds like a real catch,” Jack says, a small smirk on his face. “Anyway, when does the piece come out?”

“I think he said it would come out inna few weeks,” Bitty says, though his voice is distracted. Jack can practically see him measuring something in the kitchen.

“I’ll make sure to buy it,” Jack says.

Bitty laughs, “I think it’s only going online, I can’t imagine they’d waste real space in their magazine.”

“Either way!” Jack says, “I’m very excited.”

“Oh my god,” Bitty says, “Jack Laurent Zimmerman, you are just going to be too much for my heart one of these days.”

Jack sighs, there is no other person he’d rather be talking to.

* * *

He gets a text a few days later from Bitty, saying that the writer of the article called and they were making a few small changes to the piece. He mentions idly that it probably will be in the print issue that is coming out in two weeks, but Bitty won’t be able to buy it himself because he’ll be in two back to back finals.

“I’ll buy the first copy,” Jack says.

“There is no way to know which is the first copy,” Bitty reminds him. Jack can hear the warm amused smile in his voice, and its times like these, when Bitty sounds so intimate and close, and happy, that the distance is the hardest.

Jack huffs out a laugh, “Maybe. But I’ll buy the first copy I see.”

“I appreciate that, darlin’. I just hope they don’t make me look mighty stupid.”

There is an undercurrent of real worry in that sentence, so Jack steps in immediately. “Hey, I’m sure you did great. And if they say anything bad to you, I’ll have my army of lawyers on them faster than they can blink.”

“I love when you talk rich man to me,” Bitty says with a laugh.

Jack laughs again at that, mostly because Bitty was genuinely impressed and shocked when Jack bought him a thirty dollar t-shirt without blinking.

“That’s right, bud,” Jack says, “this is a regular _Pretty Woman_ moment.”

“Why Mr. Zimmerman,” Bitty says in a faux scandalized voice where he lets his accent drop a little more into a Scarlett O’Hara. “Are you implying that I’m a prostitute?”

“High priced call girl,” Jack says back.

“Chirp chirp chirp,” Bitty says. “I’ll expect your checkbook out next time I come to Providence.”

In the background, he can hear Dex ask Chowder if that technically counts for a fine. Jack fills with warmth again and wonders how he ever lived without Bitty in his life.

* * *

Jack wakes up at five AM the day the magazine is supposed to come out. The newsstand where he’s expecting to see it won’t be open until six, so he has plenty of time for his run and work out and still be the first person in line.

Not that Jack is expecting a massive line at six AM on a Wednesday.

Now that he’s at the newsstand he curses himself slightly, wishing he had asked who was supposed to be on the cover of this month’s issue. He can’t quite figure out what he is supposed to be looking for as he searches intently for the issue his boyfriend is in.

Later, he’ll blame the fact that Bitty told him it was a small feature with some changes. But when he realizes, Jack’s jaw drops.

On the cover of Out is Bitty, in full hockey gear, doing a triple Axel. His jersey, which is facing the camera, reads “BITTLE” in bold white writing, the words in the image are evident even as the rest of his clothes are in motion. His face isn’t towards the camera, but his head and neck are extended up.

The byline reads, ‘The First Openly Gay NCAA Captain.’

Jack can barely breath when he shoves money in the cashier’s face. He doesn’t know how much he gives, or if the man yells after him for change, he just needs the magazine now.

He frantically jumps to the article, it’s long, with pictures of Bitty cooking in the kitchen, and the team doing a huddle, and….

There is no way Bitty knows about this.

Jack takes a deep breath because he knows he’s going to need one if he’s going to read this.

Eric Bittle: The First Openly Gay NCAA Captain 

Anita Johnson 

 

> Eric Bittle is not what people expect when you talk about a college hockey team captain. Standing a diminutive five-seven, with bright blond hair, a thick Georgia accent, and an obsession with baking, he does not fit the stereotype for ‘jock’ particularly well. At least, until you see him on the ice. Bittle, who moves with unconscious grace, looks even more at home on the ice, where he currently holds three records for speed in the league.
> 
> Bittle first began playing hockey merely two years before he would go on to join the Samwell Hockey Team, compete in the Frozen Four, and play the first line with now-boyfriend Jack Zimmerman, Alternate Captain for the Falconers. When pressed for details, he shyly admits that, before coming to Samwell, he had been the team captain of a Co-Ed Hockey Team in Georgia. No checking.
> 
> _(A photo of Eric Bittle in the Samwell Hockey Team House, known as the Haus)_
> 
> “Lord,” Bittle says when asked. “That was an adjustment. I was terrified of being hit on the ice for years, I really had to work through it to get where I am now.”
> 
> He spends most of his time, when not in the rink, in the kitchen baking up a storm. He is elbow deep in pie crust by the time my team walks through the door. Bittle is full of traditional Southern hospitality. There is hot pie, and cold sweet tea waiting for us as soon as we step through the door, and Bittle is already working on another one.
> 
> “I like to keep my hands busy,” he says with a small laugh, dicing apples with frightening speed an accuracy.
> 
> Though he is perhaps best known for kissing Jack Zimmerman after his Stanely Cup win, Bittle is a star in his own right. With a successful YouTube channel of one million subscribers that focuses predominately on baking and his Captaincy of the Samwell Hockey Team, one wonders where he finds the time for school.
> 
> “Well,” Bittle comments, “if I’m honest, I’m not a particularly dedicated student. Sitting still is hard for me.” That is abundantly clear, Bittle is a high energy, a high-intensity young man who translates to a speed demon on the ice and an energetic baker in life.
> 
> Though he is also quick to say that Samwell Unversity has been the greatest thing that ever happened to him.
> 
> “I got mighty lucky when they recruited me in High School.”
> 
> Lucky?
> 
> “They had a great line already,” Bittle says, finally placing his pie in the oven. “But they needed some speed, so I’m lucky that I was what they needed. Lord knows that I would not be captain at another school, Samwell has been so open and wonderful about me being gay. I get to do it all here, have my pie and eat it too.”
> 
> He says with a bright laugh as he finally moves to sit down next to me. From here he refuses to continue the interview until I tell him a bit about myself. I mention that I’m an only child and that my mother is sick, and he immediately wants her address so he can send her a care package. When I mention that she has dietary restrictions he waves me away, stating that he bakes for NHL nutritionists, he is used to baking with “his hands tied.”
> 
> By the time we get back to him, he’s already starting another meal, this time a batch of cookies for my mother because they are “easier to transport and eat in bed if she is too tired.”
> 
> I ask him about his experience as an out gay man in one of the most aggressive sports played in the United States.
> 
> “It’s tough, Samwell guys are great, but the other teams can be a little… Snide,” Bittle says, his aggressive Southern manners peaking through. “But my team has always had my back. I really play with some of the best people I’ve ever met. I believe I wouldn’t have had the chance to get as much ice time at any other school. I’m fortunate."
> 
> _(Samwell Men’s Hockey Team in a Huddle During Samwell v. Yale)_
> 
> Does he feel pressure to live up to Jack Zimmerman, his boyfriend, Stanely Cup winning Hockey player, and former Samwell Hockey Team Captain?
> 
> “If I’m being honest,” Bittle says, “yeah. I want to make him proud, of course. But he’s always been real quick to shut that down. Doesn’t want me to torture myself by comparing my playing to his. We’re different players, and we’re gonna be different captains. But there ain’t nothing wrong with that.”
> 
> That’s wise, I replied.
> 
> Bittle laughs again, “Homespun wisdom.”
> 
> I was lucky enough to be in Samwell for their game against Yale. I had planned on returning, but Bittle asks, and I quickly learned that around here, if Bittle asks, people say yes. They win the game, Bittle comes through with two assists and one goal but does not appear to be more emotional about the win.
> 
> “This is just one,” Bittle says, taking his gear off. This voice is uncharacteristically serious, for whatever else Bittle is, a good teammate, a kind friend, he’s also a winner. “We have a lot more ahead of us.”
> 
> After talking to Bittle, I went to talk to some of his teammates, who all universally adore him. All of them comment, “he’s got the biggest heart of anyone I know.”
> 
> I can not help but agree, the pie he baked my photographer and me was among the best I have ever tasted, and the healthy option cookies tasted so good that if I hadn’t watched him make them, I wouldn’t believe they were actually healthy at all.
> 
> Perhaps what is most remarkable about Eric Bittle, is not his speed, his charming, compelling leadership style, his charisma, or his stage presence. Perhaps, the most noteworthy thing about the first and only openly Queer NCAA Captain is the size of his heart. His story of a Southern boy learning hockey to stay on the ice, and pushing himself to be the best he can be for his team and himself serves as a good reminder that with the right support and environment, even unusual candidates can make great athletes.

Jack puts the article down and smiles, checking his phone Bitty has clearly just woken up (Good Morning Handsome!) Before he ran to his exam. Jack looks down and checks his watch if he leaves now he can spend a few hours with Bitty after his reviews, he wants to be there when he sees the article.

He gets there and waits, Bitty’s final will be letting out in about five minutes, and he can’t wait to show him the article. It’s so supportive, and the writer clearly likes Bitty, though Jack has never met anyone who doesn’t.

Jack sees him walking out of the building, chatting with a brown haired kid who looks some combination of fond, amused and exasperated. Jack relates to that experience.

“Bittle,” Jack calls, and Bitty immediately turns his head towards Jack. He immediately starts running towards him, a massive smile on his face. Jack thinks about all the kind things the article commented on, Bitty’s charisma, and energy, but god, the fact that it hadn’t mentioned his smile is criminal.

“Check this out,” Jack says pulling out the magazine.

Bitty stares at it in confusion for a moment, before very quietly, with shaking fingers, reaching out for it, “is that… Is that me?”

“Sure is, Bud,” Jack says, beaming.

“But,” Bitty starts, “But… They said… They said it was going to be small. A small article. In the back.”

Jack shrugs, “They must have changed their minds.”

Bitty makes a strangled sound and rips the magazine out of Jack’s hands, flipping to the article, which is a four-page huge spread with bright pictures. He watches as Bitty’s eyes fly over the words, his breathing becoming progressively shallower and more rapid.

“Bits?” Jack asks, gently touching his hand, which is trembling madly around the paper it’s holding. It’s unusual enough for Jack to be concerned, Bitty has the most steady hands he’s ever seen. He’d make a decent surgeon if he could do the schooling for it.

“Let’s go home,” Jack says, herding Bitty away from the public crowds.

Bitty follows him blindly, staring at the article with unseeing eyes, and Jack is officially worried.

“What’cha thinking about, bud?”

“I… This… I… Jack,” Bitty says, and he sounds distraught.

Jack holds him close, “this is a good thing. The article is very nice, I’ve never had such a nice article written about me.”

“But I’m not…” he says, voice faint. “I’m not this person. This person, I’m not…”

Jack understands and is thankful when they get to the Haus. The boys clearly want to congratulate him, and Chowder looks like he wants to fling him into a hug, but Jack’s face coupled with Bitty’s panicked breathing helps them clear out real quick. He gentles him to his bed and holds him close.

“What’s going on?”

“I just,” Bitty starts, “It’s just so nice. But I’m… They made me sound so great? But I’m not that guy, and now people are going to think I’m that guy. Like I’m that… Special.”

“Bud,” Jack says, his voice low and tender. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but you are special. Remarkable. The best thing in my life.”

“Of course you think that,” Bitty says, his face still buried in Jack’s chest. “You’re supposed to, you love me. But I’m not…”

Jack shakes his head, “No. Come on bud, someone who met you for one day was already half in love with you. And that’s not me talking, be proud of this. It’s a great opportunity. You should send a thank you text to the writer.”

Bitty passes Jack his phone, “It’s under Anita Writer.”

Jack’s lips quark up, Bitty clearly isn’t going to be moving any time soon. He opens up a text (“Wow! A bit blindsided, but thank you so much for the kind article!”) Jack is amused to note the last text Bitty received from her was a compliment passed on from her mother about the cookies.

“I’m so proud of you, Bits,” Jack says, “And I’m so glad that the rest of the world gets to find out how amazing you are.”

“I love you so much, Jack,” Bitty mutters, his face still mashed against Jack’s chest.

They cuddle together, while Bitty’s phone goes crazy. His Captain friends send texts, his parents do, Jack’s parents do, but Bitty doesn’t deal with any of that.

And later, when he finally does, he notices his subscriber count has hit two million, and his Twitter following doubled.

And when he bursts into tears all over again, overwhelmed, Jack is right there, because he’s glad the rest of the world finally sees what he’s known forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Oauisdjkfasdf Okay I really fell into this fandom without any warning. I read the entire stupid comic in like, two days, and Eric Richard Bittle is the cutest most lovable protagonist ever and I am just!!! This was written in like two hours and fueled by my desire to see my cuties happy 
> 
> Also i'm very much not a journalist, and honestly didn't do any research about the writing style that the real Out Magazine uses, this plot idea basically just came up and mugged me. So i apologize for the inaccuracies that may be there 
> 
> Anyway- I'm suffering, but like, no pasa nada


End file.
